the Super brain
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | the Super brain |
| Original title | Le Cerveau |
| Country of production | Italy , France |
| original language | French , English |
| Publishing year | 1969 |
| length | 105 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 6 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Gérard Oury |
| script |
Marcel Jullian Gérard Oury Danièle Thompson |
| production | Alain Poiré |
| music | Georges Delerue |
| camera | Vladimir Ivanov |
| cut | Albert Jurgenson |
| occupation | |
| |
The Super Brain ( Le Cerveau ) is a French - Italian comedy film by Gérard Oury in the style of a so-called heist movie , which was shot in 1969. The elaborately staged film depicts how competing crooks on 6 July 1967 a secret cash transport of NATO on the mainline route from the station Paris-Nord to Brussels rob. The crazy story was inspired by the 1963 mail train robbery in England.
action
The two sympathetic and rather naive little crooks Arthur and Anatole forge a plan to rob a train loaded with NATO money bags that is supposed to go from Paris to Brussels. Arthur escaped from prison four days before his release to carry out their raid. Little did they suspect that other crooks, including the “mastermind”, are pursuing the same goal.
The so-called “mastermind” is a notorious Briton who robbed the Glasgow – London mail train five years earlier. His enormous intelligence makes his head fall to one side when thinking through the heavy weight of his brain. In his second identity as NATO officer Colonel Matthews, he is conveniently assigned to carry out the multi-million dollar (5 million pounds sterling ) money transport of the 14 NATO member countries, which are provided in several duffel bags with the flags of the NATO member states for identification.
The choleric, somewhat stupid boss of the Sicilian Mafia , Frankie Scannapieco, is another competitor in the race for the millions. Scannapieco initially acts as an accomplice of Matthews and is supposed to launder the money to be stolen, but then betrays him because his share of the loot is too small for him. Scannapieco's beautiful sister Sofia has her eye on Matthews, which drives the hot-blooded Sicilian - who wants to protect her "honor" - to white heat.
The mastermind and his gang want to handle the raid just as they did with the attack on the mail train. Arthur has also studied that robbery closely and wants to carry it out with Anatole. They get the money bags first and throw them off a bridge, where they are loaded and taken away by the mastermind's accomplices disguised as firefighters. During the escape, the latter come to a police checkpoint and are arrested, whereby the false police officers, who are Scannapieco's people, take the money.
A hair-raising chase develops , which comes to an end in the port of Le Havre according to the pattern "how won, so melted away". When loading the Statue of Liberty , they manage to find the secret hiding place inside, but the banknotes are distributed throughout the port area. Arthur, Anatole and the mastermind team up to carry out a new coup in the USA.
backgrounds
Until 1967 the seat of NATO was in and around the Palais de Chaillot in Paris. After France's withdrawal from NATO's military structures, the company moved to Brussels in the north-west of the city on Boulevard Leopold.
With over five million viewers, the film was very successful in France.
The film was shot from July 10, 1968 in the studios of Saint-Maurice (Val-de-Marne) by the French film company Gaumont and the Italian production company Dino De Laurentiis Cinematografica in parallel in French and English, as the American donors did not accept a dubbed version would have.
The theme song The Brain (the English film title of the same name) is interpreted by The American Breed . The rest of the film music comes from Georges Delerue .
DVD
A double DVD edition was released on December 4, 2006. While the theatrical version is on the first DVD, the original version is six minutes longer on the second. The extra minutes have not been synchronized . but with German subtitles.
Reviews
"Big stars and comedians in good spirits and with wit."
"Ingeniously staged and brilliantly played crime comedy with an abundance of surprising gags."
“... the“ super brain ”lacks the necessary lively, fresh joke and the right timing to be able to convince as a crook comedy, especially at the beginning, so that the bottom line is only a gangster film that is successful in smaller parts is presented, with an interesting plot and can boast at least a very good cast. "
“The legendary mail robbery that held the whole of England in suspense in 1964 has inspired several filmmakers. Comedy specialist Gérard Oury turned it into an imaginative crime grotesque in which David Niven and Jean-Paul Belmondo are entrancingly funny. "
“Extensive turbulence around the carefully planned and then failed robbery of the NATO treasury. Skilled fun with intelligent ideas in a brilliant cast that wants to be enjoyed without being taken seriously. From the age of 14 this will certainly work. "
Web links
- The mastermind in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- The mastermind in the online film database
- The mastermind in the German dubbing file
- Comparison of the cut versions German theatrical version - French. Original version of Das Superhirn at Schnittberichte.com
Individual evidence
- ↑ Release certificate for Das Superhirn . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry , October 2006 (PDF; test number: 41 212-a DVD).
- ↑ http://www.jpbox-office.com/fichfilm.php?id=9021
- ↑ Extended new edition. Rasch and Röhring, Hamburg 1990, ISBN 3-89136-392-3 , p. 791. (Rating: 2½ stars = above average)
- ↑ The super brain. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .
- ↑ film-rezensions.de
- ↑ prisma.de
- ↑ Evangelical Press Association, Munich, Review No. 441/1969